Pi Yanlin deliberately made his footsteps sound unsteady. With morning dew still clinging to the bluestone slabs, he stumbled forward and landed with his elbow hitting the threshold of Zhiyuan’s meditation room. "Ouch—" He curled up like a shrimp, clutching his arm, while his peripheral vision caught a sliver of dim yellow light leaking through the door crack. "This threshold is way too poorly placed..." Before he could finish his sentence, his back hit the blue-brick floor outside the room with a heavy thud.
"Ding—Host detected lying flat in a critical location. 'Past Retrospection' state triggered." As the System prompt exploded in his mind, Pi Yanlin’s eyelids, which had been stuck together as he feigned pain, twitched violently in genuine shock.
When he opened his eyes again, the blue-brick floor was gone, replaced by a faded red carpet. The scent of sandalwood made his nose sting.
Chapter 30